Saratoga Springs police chief: September rape did not put public in danger, warrant notification

SARATOGA SPRINGS -- City Police Chief Christopher Cole said his department did not believe the public was in danger when a woman reported that she was raped in the early morning of Sept. 1 near the intersection of Lake and East avenues.

"Otherwise, a formal notification would have been made to the public regarding this crime," Cole wrote in a letter to Public Safety Commissioner Christian Mathiesen.

The letter was read aloud at Monday's City Council meeting.

The still unsolved rape was reported to police at about 5 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 1. Though Cole says in his letter that a police blotter was provided to reporters and included an entry on the reported assault, his letter does not address the fact that police refused to answer a Saratogian reporter's questions about the incident.

According to police, the suspect is a Hispanic male about 6 feet tall with a medium build. Police also say the victim bit the perpetrator on his left hand during the attack.

In his letter to Mathiesen, Cole lists the factors police consider when determining whether to issue a public statement on a specific case, including the following:

o The seriousness of the crime

o The safety of the general public and potential for repeated similar acts or additional victims

o Whether information that could be garnered from the public would assist the investigation

o Whether information, if made public, would jeopardize the investigation

o Whether releasing information would cause undue concern or panic among the general public.

In this specific case, Cole wrote that "based upon the information gathered both immediately and shortly after the reported incident, as well as the investigative steps taken by investigators to identify and locate the perpetrator, it was determined that a specific notification would not be made."

On Friday, Mathiesen said he asked Cole to write the letter because "we did want to address the fact that there were some people that had concerns."

Cole said decisions about whether to make particular crime reports public are made while balancing "our need to conduct thorough criminal investigations with the public's safety and the 'need to know.' "

Mathiesen said he stands behind the department's decision-making in general and in this specific case.

"The fact that there weren't any further attacks of that sort on that side of the city would indicate that the police were certainly right that the public was not in danger," Mathiesen said Friday.

"I don't micromanage the police department," he added. "I have great confidence in our police force and the management of that department."

The commissioner reiterated advice to all city residents to exercise caution when out late at night and, in particular, said women should not walk alone at night.